It's a rare situation these days
when a company can exist entirely "off-line". With so much
information being moved onto the World Wide Web and the billions
of email moving about daily, the Internet has become a major
part of business life in the 21st century.

Providing Internet access to your
staff is not particularly complicated or expensive. It really
depends on how many employees you have and how much you intend
to use the Internet. We'll help you figure out what options are
available to you and get you set up.

Today's most common options are:

DSL
Service. DSL uses telephone wiring to
connect to the Internet. The majority of DSL lines are
sold by the local telephone company (GSI, Worldpath, Verizon
-
depending on your location), and cost between $25 and $100
per month. Speeds can be very impressive, depending on the
price. DSL generally doesn't work unless you are located
within about three miles of your telephone company's central
office.

Cable
Modem. Historically geared more towards
residential customers, cable modem could be a great option
if it's available in your building. Comcast and
Metrocast are offering
attractive new business plans. Service costs between $40
and $200 and it's available from one source -- the local
cable company. Speeds are fine for smaller offices.

ISDN.
If you can't get DSL, ISDN is probably the next best thing.
It works fine for very small offices (up to maybe 5-7
employees) and doesn't have the same distance limitations as
DSL. Cost is between $65 and $150, depending on the amount
of usage.

T1
Line. A T1 line is a dedicated pipe between you
and the Internet, and works best with larger offices.
The provider guarantees a data speed, depending on the
bandwidth purchased. The
problem is that it is significantly more expensive than any
of the other options, but for many applications it is just
what you need. The cost depends on the distance from your
office to your Internet service provider, but expect monthly
costs between $400 and $1,000.

Dial-Up. Using a standard 56K modem and
telephone line, a dial-up connection may be perfectly fine
for many situations. Special equipment is available which
can dial on demand from the network when someone wants to
use the Internet. Speeds are slow, but acceptable for small
offices. Cost is around $60 per month combined between a
dedicated telephone line and Internet access, so often a DSL
line (if available) is a better bargain. Business lines
usually are billed for usage, so you pay per minute for
dial-up connections. Can get expensive quickly.